Roof collapse: Ghaziabad urges RITES for audit

GHAZIABAD: The Ghaziabad administration has requested Rail India Technical and Economic Service (RITES) to examine debris of the Muradnagar crematorium shelter that collapsed last week and killed 24 people.
The three-member technical team constituted by district magistrate Ajay Shankar Pandey submitted its report on Monday, four days after its deadline ended. Sources said the report had recommended a further probe of the shelter collapse by an expert agency.It was after this recommendation that the district administration decided to engage RITES. Samples of the debris are already being examined by IIT-Roorkee.
Although the DM declined to share contents of the “interim report” — as he called it — sources said it mostly talked about substandard construction material allegedly used by the contractor and a fault in the design of the crematorium shelter. “The report, it seems, is still incomplete. The committee has suggested a third party audit of the structure and for that, we are planning to engage RITES. The chief engineer of the Ghaziabad Development Authority has been entrusted with the responsibility of coordinating with the agency and get the audit done at the earliest,” said an official. The cost of this audit would be borne by the Muradnagar municipality.
A GDA official said a letter requesting RITES to conduct the audit had already been sent. “In case they refuse, we will urge IIT-Roorkee to take up the job,” he added.
The Muradnagar roof collapse is being probed by four committees, among them an SIT formed on the orders of the chief minister. Members of the SIT, who have been camping in Muradnagar for the past few days, met the families of the victims and recorded their statements.
Simultaneously, another inquiry is being conducted on the orders of the Meerut range commissioner, while at the local level, a magisterial probe by the ADM (administration) is underway. The three-member committee formed by the DM was the fourth agency to have conducted a probe.